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About

Overview

Renowned for its integration of rich ethnographies into the core book, CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 10th Edition provides excellent coverage of cultures around the world. The text also emphasizes critical thinking and contemporary issues, including culture change and globalization, with a new chapter on "Power, Conquest, and the World System". In addition, a new end-of-chapter feature entitled "The Global and The Local" presents students with case studies on cultural responses to globalization, asking them to critically evaluate the issue. Issues of power, gender, stratification, and ethnicity continue to be highlighted in this edition, supported by features and pedagogy designed to get students thinking about the world in which they live.

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Features and Benefits

"Anthropology Makes a Difference" features emphasize applied anthropology in every chapter, capturing a key message of the text that the study of anthropology is important and the methods learned can and do make us better world citizens. These boxes explore the future of anthropology as a discipline, show its usefulness in addressing real world issues today, and encourage students to consider a degree in anthropology by citing examples from the field. Each box illustrates examples of applied anthropology in areas such as medicine, forensics, development, and advocacy -- and in turn asserts the importance of anthropology in the real world.

Ethnographic examples are used extensively within the body of the text. New ethnographies examine such peoples and topics as: fieldwork in dangerous places (Chapter 3); the use of cell phones in Jamaica (Chapter 5); climate change (Chapter 6); the Minangkabau of Sumatra, with emphasis on matrilineality as a significant form of contemporary kinship structure (Chapter 8); West African merchants in New York City (Chapter 7); the Na of China, a society that raises interesting questions about whether marriage can truly be considered a human universal (Chapter 9); the connection between health, pollution and racial stratification (Chapter 12); and the conditions of child labor in Olinda, Brazil (Chapter 16).

Helpful features for study and review include: a running glossary at the bottom of each page, which defines terms as they are introduced; new chapter summaries, organized as a series of questions and responses designed to help students engage with the material and promote critical-thinking skills; and an appendix on major anthropological theories.

Chapter-opening "Thinking Points" pique students' interest by presenting short, pithy points about an ethnographic situation or current event that is a key point of the chapter and is further discussed in the chapter.

What's New

Substantially expanding the book's coverage of colonialism and the process of decolonization, Chapter 15, "Power, Conquest, and a World System", focuses on the European expansion that began in the 15th century and describes the ways in which relatively independent societies were drawn or forced into a global economy.

Based on reviewer feedback, this significantly revised edition includes the reorganization of several chapters. The authors placed the chapter on kinship prior to the chapter on marriage and family to emphasize that forms of marriage, family, and household are set in the context of kinship systems. The chapters on social stratification, race, and ethnicity have been reorganized to draw attention to the connections between these subjects.

Coverage of the field's recent developments include: new sections on the ways communication and the expansion of the global economy affect anthropology and societies typically studied by anthropologists, with rewritten sections on medical anthropology and uncontacted peoples (Chapter 1); more on cultural adaptation as well as information on recent fossil finds, including discussion of the controversy over Homo floresiensis, the "Hobbit" find (Chapter 2); Chapter 3 has been substantially rewritten with a new ethnography on fieldwork in dangerous places and the use of anthropologists by the U.S. military; and a new discussion on culture and autism and new examples to clarify connections between critical questions in anthropology and particular anthropological perspectives (Chapter 4).

A highlight of the book's new and streamlined features includes a chapter-ending feature, "The Global and The Local", which emphasizes the importance of the global context for contemporary anthropology. Topics covered include: anthropologists and human rights, including the case of female genital operations (Chapter 3); ideas about the analysis of the events of 9/11 (Chapter 4); the English-Only movement in the United States (Chapter 5); the globalization of food (Chapter 6); product anthropology (Chapter 7); transmigration and kinship (Chapter 9); the Islamic principle of female modesty and its relationship to female dress (Chapter 10); critical issues along the "Green Line" and the United States/Mexico border (Chapter 11); the changing class system of China (Chapter 12); increasing religious diversity in the United States (Chapter 13); world music (Chapter 14); and controversies over the ownership of historical objects (Chapter 15).

This edition includes revised discussion of such topics as a more thorough discussion of the history of fieldwork in anthropology (Chapter 3); more complete coverage of different subsistence technologies and greater balance of description among them (Chapter 6); expanded coverage of political economy with particular attention to market economies and the naturalization of capitalism (Chapter 7); the impact of the nation state on ethnicity, indigenous peoples and refugees (Chapter 11); the interrelationship of the inequalities of class, race, and ethnicity, primarily within the United States, but also in the context of globalization and its effects on the caste system in India and the class system in China (Chapter 12); expanded coverage of ritual, rites of passage and rites of intensification with more on the varieties of religious practitioners (Chapter 13); and the problems and prospects of globalization (Chapter 16).

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Meet the Author

Author Bio

Serena Nanda

John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York
Bio: Serena Nanda is professor emeritus of anthropology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. She has published two anthropological murder mysteries, The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony, and Murder, a novel set in an Indian immigrant community in New York City, and Assisted Dying: An Ethnographic Murder Mystery on Florida's Gold Coast. Her other published works include Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of India, winner of the 1990 Ruth Benedict Prize; American Cultural Pluralism and Law; Gender Diversity: Cross-Cultural Variations; and a New York City guidebook, 40 Perfect New York Days: Walks and Rambles in and Around the City. She has always been captivated by the stories people tell and by the tapestry of human diversity. Anthropology was the perfect way for her to immerse herself in these passions, and through teaching, to spread the word about the importance of understanding both human differences and human similarities.

John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York
Bio: Serena Nanda is professor emeritus of anthropology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. She has published two anthropological murder mysteries, The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony, and Murder, a novel set in an Indian immigrant community in New York City, and Assisted Dying: An Ethnographic Murder Mystery on Florida's Gold Coast. Her other published works include Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of India, winner of the 1990 Ruth Benedict Prize; American Cultural Pluralism and Law; Gender Diversity: Cross-Cultural Variations; and a New York City guidebook, 40 Perfect New York Days: Walks and Rambles in and Around the City. She has always been captivated by the stories people tell and by the tapestry of human diversity. Anthropology was the perfect way for her to immerse herself in these passions, and through teaching, to spread the word about the importance of understanding both human differences and human similarities.

Richard L. Warms

Richard L. Warms is professor of anthropology at Texas State University–San Marcos. His published works include Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History; Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology; and An Encyclopedia And Sacred Realms: Essays In Religion, Belief, And Society. He also has written journal articles on commerce, religion, and ethnic identity in West Africa; African exploration and romanticism; and African veterans of French colonial armed forces. Warms' interests in anthropology were kindled by college courses and by his experiences as a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa. He has traveled extensively in Africa, Europe, Asia, and South America. He continues to teach Introduction to Cultural Anthropology but also teaches classes in anthropological theory, the anthropology of religion, economic anthropology, and film at both the undergraduate and graduate level. His current projects include a book about the development of anthropology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Students and faculty are invited to contact him with their comments, suggestions, and questions at r.warms@txstate.edu.

Richard L. Warms is professor of anthropology at Texas State University–San Marcos. His published works include Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History; Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology; and An Encyclopedia And Sacred Realms: Essays In Religion, Belief, And Society. He also has written journal articles on commerce, religion, and ethnic identity in West Africa; African exploration and romanticism; and African veterans of French colonial armed forces. Warms' interests in anthropology were kindled by college courses and by his experiences as a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa. He has traveled extensively in Africa, Europe, Asia, and South America. He continues to teach Introduction to Cultural Anthropology but also teaches classes in anthropological theory, the anthropology of religion, economic anthropology, and film at both the undergraduate and graduate level. His current projects include a book about the development of anthropology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Students and faculty are invited to contact him with their comments, suggestions, and questions at r.warms@txstate.edu.